NEW servers, again? (question inspired by 12 hours downtime on 17/10/2023)

IZZEFlameLash

HedgeHugger wrote: »

You'd think that by now there'd be some sort of server swap over.
Have a nice, new, shiny and fresh instance for people to join after a certain time/date, so no disruption to service. People still sat on the older/unrefreshed servers get a warning that they will be disconnected in X time (like we get now).
No disruption to everyone else, game goes on as usual.

That'd cost 'too much money'. Or they just have so bad of codes that this isn't possible for some reason.

SandandStars

msteentjes wrote: »

TaSheen wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin, could you give us some info on this please?

offcourse not, they never explain what they are doing..

Maybe we just need to ask nicely.

Please, pretty please, can you say something? Anything?

Hello?

LadyLethalla

I'm lucky I have 17th off, so I can get my writs done before. Glad they changed the reset to 1pm my time.

KaGaOri

It's 9 am to 8 pm in central Europe. Hope they can get the server handle all EU players loging in at the same time. (/s)
Why can't this be done in more reasonable time slot, ZOS?

Jaraal

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Getting the Crown Store ready for the Witches Festival.

Decorating and populating the game zones in preparation for the Witches Festival.

Those would be my guesses. But I'm often wrong-- so very wrong. (Sigh)

The game zone decor would be handled via a patch some time in the recent past. That sort of thing is then turned off or on by code that triggers when a condition is met (i.e. a start date/time).

Yeah, I was sort of being facetious or funny, trying to suggest the NPCs setting up decorations or whatever. I realize most of this stuff has already been set up years ago, although there might be a few changes once in a while, such as the new quest that was added last year or the year before.

On the other hand, I have no idea how this stuff works on a technical level. For instance, is it basically like another instance of the game that needs to be copied over onto the live servers, then they can flip a software switch to toggle the event stuff on or off as needed? And then for the next event they have yet another instance or whatever that needs to be copied over onto the live servers?

Based upon how many bugs and broken things they let loose with each patch, maybe they are actually taking the time to test the new changes before pushing them to Live. Still no guarantee of a smooth transition, but it would be better than having to deal with the bugs while waiting a few months before the next fix is attempted.

Tieberion

They announce yet what tommorrows long down time is for?

SeaGtGruff

I was watching the main site page to see if an announcement for the Witches Festival has been posted, but nothing yet.

TaSheen

Um. Deter, tomorrow is October 17. And all megaservers plus store and account system will be down for at least 11 hours.

Deter1UK

TaSheen wrote: »

Um. Deter, tomorrow is October 17. And all megaservers plus store and account system will be down for at least 11 hours.

Yeah thanks, I realised I’d just read the last maintenance post and assumed (ha ha) it was current and relevant.

Deleted post obviously

TaSheen

I found that one too when I went looking after the info showed up in the header. And nothing else. Annoying and disappointing. *sigh*

So I guess I'll go pick up some groceries, hit the liquor store, and get a pizza - by the time I get home maybe we'll have a game again.

dk_dunkirk

Vynera wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

thats interesting lol

ill be sleeping most of that timeframe (3am to 2 pm) lol

But for EU it's ~9am to ~8pm, so basically the whole day

Given that the NA and EU "megaservers" are separate things, this doesn't make sense, does it? They could move the EU window to the same relative time frame as in the US, couldn't they?

virtus753

dk_dunkirk wrote: »

Vynera wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

thats interesting lol

ill be sleeping most of that timeframe (3am to 2 pm) lol

But for EU it's ~9am to ~8pm, so basically the whole day

Given that the NA and EU "megaservers" are separate things, this doesn't make sense, does it? They could move the EU window to the same relative time frame as in the US, couldn't they?

Not if it’s US-based employees who need to be on hand for the maintenance, which is how they’ve explained it in the past.

SeaGtGruff

.

TaSheen wrote: »

I found that one too when I went looking after the info showed up in the header. And nothing else. Annoying and disappointing. *sigh*

So I guess I'll go pick up some groceries, hit the liquor store, and get a pizza - by the time I get home maybe we'll have a game again.

Me, I'll either go to bed at a semi-decent time for a change, and actually get some sleep before our maid service comes for their bi-weekly visit, or I'll just stay up as usual playing one of the other Elder Scrolls games and trying not to let the cats drive me crazy.

msteentjes

dk_dunkirk wrote: »

Vynera wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

thats interesting lol

ill be sleeping most of that timeframe (3am to 2 pm) lol

But for EU it's ~9am to ~8pm, so basically the whole day

Given that the NA and EU "megaservers" are separate things, this doesn't make sense, does it? They could move the EU window to the same relative time frame as in the US, couldn't they?

I bet they could, they just don't care about us, this is abundatly clear to me after a year playing, so no eso+ for me unless they change several things for the better.

The times are all favoured for the US, we in europe can suck it, lose a day of gameplay every maintenance. and the reset times are in the middle of the night.

Elvenheart

It’s obvious what’s happening tomorrow. During the maintenance, the Great Pumpkin/Crone Mother/[insert favorite Witches Festival spook or deity here] will be going to all the cities of Tamriel and personally decorating them. The decorations will be invisible until the Festival, of course, but then with a thought or wave of a hand the veil will be lifted and we will for the first time get to see the painstakingly decorated cities in all their glory 🎃 👻 👹 🧙‍♀️

Jimbru

The game has been pretty busy lately, so my educated guess on what's happening with this long downtime:

- "Deep cleaning" on the server side. Catching up overdue maintenance, backups, hardware swaps et al.
- Patching in this year's new stuff for the Halloween event.
- Server side prep for Update 40 so they don't have to disrupt the Halloween event for it. I'd wager this is a large part of it.
- Probably also patching in some bug fixes and other minor stuff since they have the downtime anyway.

TaSheen

Jimbru wrote: »

The game has been pretty busy lately, so my educated guess on what's happening with this long downtime:

- "Deep cleaning" on the server side. Catching up overdue maintenance, backups, hardware swaps et al.
- Patching in this year's new stuff for the Halloween event.
- Server side prep for Update 40 so they don't have to disrupt the Halloween event for it. I'd wager this is a large part of it.
- Probably also patching in some bug fixes and other minor stuff since they have the downtime anyway.

Yeah, makes sense. It's just frustrating that they can't JUST TELL US what's happening.

Elsonso

dk_dunkirk wrote: »

Vynera wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

thats interesting lol

ill be sleeping most of that timeframe (3am to 2 pm) lol

But for EU it's ~9am to ~8pm, so basically the whole day

Given that the NA and EU "megaservers" are separate things, this doesn't make sense, does it? They could move the EU window to the same relative time frame as in the US, couldn't they?

They used to do that. However, they ran into problems because the megaservers, while in different locations, are apparently not independent. I guess the solution is to simply do them both at the same time, as that is what they did.

katanagirl1

Jimbru wrote: »

The game has been pretty busy lately, so my educated guess on what's happening with this long downtime:

- "Deep cleaning" on the server side. Catching up overdue maintenance, backups, hardware swaps et al.
- Patching in this year's new stuff for the Halloween event.
- Server side prep for Update 40 so they don't have to disrupt the Halloween event for it. I'd wager this is a large part of it.
- Probably also patching in some bug fixes and other minor stuff since they have the downtime anyway.

It only says maintenance, not patch maintenance. So I would expect no bug fixes.

xSILVER_SHAMANx

Man, it really eats it hard being in Australia.

Not only is it basically impossible to play competitive PVP on any game that doesn't have servers in the Pacific region - the lowest latency I can get on ESO is between 100ms and 150ms, that is best case! There have been thousands of times when I am running up around the 300-400ms mark, which is not just unplayable for PVP but unplayable in general for anything other than trash mobs and overland content - but to top things off, maintenance is always right in my prime playing time. Usually on that one night of the week that I get home from work at a reasonable hour and don't have anything else important to attend to, and this time it literally starts right at the time I will be getting home, and running through until the time I will be waking up tomorrow to go to work.

Bah humbug!

Kite42

3pm to 2am here. Thanks a lot.

Lugaldu

msteentjes wrote: »

Again maintenance for 11 hours!!! no mention why.
And for europe this means from 9 in the morning to 7 in the evening, a whole day playing gone..

And let's not forget that when hundreds of thousands of people stream into the game at 8 p.m., then nothing works anymore...

Calastir

The silence is deafening.

Jaraal

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Jimbru wrote: »

The game has been pretty busy lately, so my educated guess on what's happening with this long downtime:

- "Deep cleaning" on the server side. Catching up overdue maintenance, backups, hardware swaps et al.
- Patching in this year's new stuff for the Halloween event.
- Server side prep for Update 40 so they don't have to disrupt the Halloween event for it. I'd wager this is a large part of it.
- Probably also patching in some bug fixes and other minor stuff since they have the downtime anyway.

It only says maintenance, not patch maintenance. So I would expect no bug fixes.

Patch maintenance is alterations to the client. They can certainly change things server side that don't require us downloading anything.

Daoin

im kind of used to esos a 6 day weeks now

Trundik

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Getting the Crown Store ready for the Witches Festival.

Decorating and populating the game zones in preparation for the Witches Festival.

Those would be my guesses. But I'm often wrong-- so very wrong. (Sigh)

Getting store for Fesival, while 2 person on server can make gifts >_<

Ugh_Tech

katanagirl1 wrote: »

It only says maintenance, not patch maintenance. So I would expect no bug fixes.

That means Countess Ilise Manteau will have to take cover on the graceyard for another week or so - since I cannot warn her while she covers there and her quest is stuck that way. That must hurt her back!

Zastrix

@ZOS_Kevin So... Where's the better communication post u-35?

Granden_Woodleafson

Maybe they're getting around to implementing the things they said they were going to do.

cristi73eb17_ESO

PTS is undergoing the same maintenance. Interesting...